Whatever you want to build, your plan starts from the sets you are doing today.
Every week between the sets you are doing today and the body you are building. Sets per muscle per week, reps in reserve, and the load that follows them: all three counted and prescribed rather than left to how the session felt.
- Weekly sets per muscle are counted, not guessed and every lift is tagged by the job it is doing in the session.
- The block wave is real 3 × 8-10, then 4 × 6-8, then 5 × 4-6, the same lifts doing a different job.
- No exercise repeats across your week variants rotate so the stimulus changes without the plan losing its shape.
A real week, generated
Intermediate lifter, 4-day upper/lower split, Build Muscle focus.
Hypertrophy block: a mid-block week (Hypertrophy)Higher reps, more sets: the block accumulates volume in the muscle-building range.
Strength block: the same split, later (Strength)The block wave is real, not a label: the same lifts, now heavier and lower-rep.
Real output from the generator for this athlete, frozen on the page. Yours is built from your numbers and moves as you train.
How muscle is actually built
Hard sets per muscle per week is the number that matters.
Roughly ten to twenty for most muscles. Below it you maintain; far above it you accumulate fatigue faster than you recover from it.
Twice a week beats once, at the same total volume.
The growth signal from a session fades within a couple of days, so the same sets spread across two sessions spend more of the week actually building.
You have to be eating enough, and slightly more than enough.
Muscle is built from a surplus. A small one adds mostly tissue; a large one mostly adds the thing you were trying to avoid.
Proximity to failure is the intensity dial.
Sets taken close to failure, two or three reps left, drive growth. Sets stopped well short of it fill a logbook.
In the app
Hypertrophy is one of the best-understood adaptations in sport science, and it comes down to levers you can count: enough hard sets per muscle per week, loads that progress, protein to build with, and enough sleep to do the building. No secret splits. No confusion. Just numbers most people never actually track. Which is why most people look the same year after year.
The volume window. Muscle grows on roughly 10 to 20 hard sets per muscle per week. Under it, nothing happens; way over it, you're just accumulating fatigue. Almost nobody counts this across a real week. Chest gets 24 sets because Monday is international bench day, hamstrings get 4.
Progression you can measure. A set builds muscle when it's close to failure and heavier or longer than it was last month. "Feeling the burn" is not a metric. Top of your rep range on every set, then the weight moves up. That's a metric.
The support system. Around 2g of protein per kilo, most days. Calories at maintenance or a touch above. Sleep, because the gym is where you make the argument and bed is where you win it.
How the app runs those levers for you: every muscle gets its right weekly dose, counted properly across everything you lift, compounds included. Big lifts lead each session, and when you hit the top of the rep range on every set, the weight moves up for you. Accessories ride in supersets so sessions stay under an hour without cutting volume. Nutrition targets set themselves from your body and your goal, protein included. And every set you log sharpens next week's prescription. The plan learns your strength as fast as you build it.
Before you decide
How long before anything changes?
Blocks run twelve to sixteen weeks because that is the honest timescale. The weekly set count per muscle and the loads you log are what tell you it is working before the mirror does.
What happens when life gets in the way for a week?
The following weeks adjust rather than carrying on as though nothing happened. A missed week is worked around, not punished.
I am starting from a low base.
The plan starts from your current numbers, not from a level you are supposed to have reached. Week one is anchored to what you can actually do now.
Can I see what I would actually be doing before I pay?
You already can. Everything above this is real output from the same engine you would be using, and the picker on the home page will build any goal you like, week by week, without an account.
I do not have five or six days a week.
Pick the number you have. The plan is designed for that commitment from the start, and two days is a complete programme.
What do I need in the gym?
You tell it what you have and it selects from that. A full gym, a home rack, or dumbbells and a bench all produce a real programme rather than a reduced one.
Is there a real person, or just the app?
Rob Hartley built Talos and trains with it every day: he races HYROX and marathons on the same plans you would be given. You can message him any time from the coaching screen and he replies within 24 hours. That is included, not an upgrade.
How does the money-back guarantee work?
Finish the block, log your sessions, and test or race at the end. If you have not set a PB, email us within two weeks of the block ending and we refund your membership for it. No forms, no argument.
How do I cancel?
In the app, under Settings. If you subscribed through the App Store, cancel in your App Store subscription settings instead, the same as any other subscription. The first seven days are free and nothing is taken until they are up.
7-day free trial, then £19.99/month. Cancel anytime.
Founding-member price. It will be £29.99 for new members later; join now and yours stays where it is.